[At the set break, mere seconds after the final note of Don’t Ease]

Jerry [on the phone] “Damn, I got his answering machine. I hope he gets this tonight. Hey Bruce, it’s Garcia, man, how you been? Listen, we’re between sets in New York City and I desperately need your help. It’s an emergency, man, I mean a genuine crisis. Call me back tonight, I don’t care what time, I’ll be up.”

[Later, the drummers are left alone on stage, and the rest of the band head backstage for a shorter break.]

Jerry [on the phone] “Bruce! Hey, it’s Jerry. How’ve you been? Did you get my message a little while ago? Are you busy tomorrow? How about the next couple weeks? No $&@? - alright man, listen, you gotta help me. You know this new guy, Welnick? Remember the guy from the $&@?! Tubes? Yeah, well, tonight’s his first gig with us, and he sucks. I mean he’s terrible, it’s a total disaster. The crowd is gonna start throwing beer bottles at the stage, man, you gotta come help us out. I can’t go back on this stage tomorrow night without you, or I’m gonna get murdered. I’m sending you a first class ticket to New York tomorrow morning. We can get some gear for a couple days until your stuff gets here. Please, man, I’m actually scared to go back out there to finish the show. Can you make it? Yeah? Alright, $&@!? yeah, thank you brother. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”

I loved this show. I reached the absolute highest heights of Grateful Dead euphoria in the 2nd set on this particular night. The Scarlet Fire is nothing short of volcanically hot... and crackled with vicious energy up to the Sugar Magnolia which was without doubt the best I ever witnessed in my 100 shows. I saw dozens of shows in 1990 including 9/20 and the Branford show at Nassau and this one would be my clear pick for the best show of the entire year. The playing is just spectacular and Jerry is SOOOO in the mood.

this was my first show, and i am so happy to find it online after all these years.

i remember sitting next to an older guy from long island who said he was tired of dead shows, the dead had nothing left, and all that, and finally i said, hey...this is my first show. come on! so, he didnt stop, haha, and he was saying he should have stayed home, and then when the band was introduced with the distort, and everyone went crazy. the guy was crying by the end of the show. it was truly amazing.

(my best friend was there for his 100th show and he was going nuts) this is still the best show i ever saw, and i saw over 50, and heard a recording much later after i saw it, but its been at least 10 years since i heard it...)

i love this show, even if the set list does not reflect the greatness of it. i will never forget bobby and jerry smiling and leaning into each other, and feeling the sensation that this show was great great moment in time.

thanks so much for letting me hear it again!!!

i acquired an aud tape of this in spring of '91. i remember thinking, i was at this show? perhaps it was too much to absorb all at once. john scher introduces the band, and they're thumping right out of the gate.

to my ears, the soundboard is flat. this audience recording is ridiculously good. it's a broader sound than the board complete with the echospace of the garden. plus, you hear the eruption after "just like new york city"! i'm not sure why i shouldn't give it five stars.

well ok, it's not cornell. but neither are horton field house, hartford '83 and a host of other massively good scarlet->fires. jerry's licks right out of scarlet are spine-tingling good. bobby makes these spooky howling wind noises during fire egging jerry on to do the fan. vince hasn't gotten brash enough to tune the casio crud louder than anyone else as he would by '93. phil is right where you want him to be.

the terrapin jam is sweet as it butterfly floats right into drums adding that little extra something the song had been begging for for years. jerry sparkles.

memory is a funny thing. my experiences toward the end of the run overshadowed this night. but it is a monster in it's own right. these guys deserved to have the inflated king kong with a tie dye out on the msg marquis.

I found the links for this show on further net. This copy is as close to SBD as any AUD has ever come. My compliments to the taper. Great shows with great sound, a must!!

Great audience recording of a great MSG show. This is one of the better audience recordings, very clear, well worth the DL. Thanks to the powers that be for leaving these audience recordings up. (least they could do imo)
First MSG show since Brent died and original members seemed determined to show they have something left in the tank. Great Scarlet-Fire, Terrapin, Sugar Mag, among others.
I am saving 5 stars for Englishtown '77 etc... but this is a GREAT show.

does anybody remember the exposed ceilings in some of the hallways in the garden during that run. that was a weird, crowded egress route that night. there was an entirely separate universe in the ceiling but excellent sugar mag to close!!!!

I was at this show, so I'm glad to find a copy of it after all these years. It was my first night hearing Vince, and was his first MSG show with the Dead. His keyboard tone was terrible, but he showed promise overall. Stranger>Sugaree was a great opening pairing. The return to BT Wind's original lyrics went over real well. FIRE started rough then really took off. Truckin>Terrapin was a nice twist, and Wharf Rat was gorgeous.

But really, this show was just a warm-up for what was to come in this famed six-show run, climaxing with a full post-Drums Dark Star on 9/20, easily one of my top three shows in 30+ between 85-95. Thanks to archive.org for taking me back to both of these, among many others.